(LifeSiteNews) — The Trump administration can keep its rule requiring travelers to declare their actual sex on their passport, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The policy stems from President Trump’s Day One executive order that, consistent with biology, the federal government would only recognize two sexes.
Yesterday’s ruling in Trump v. Orr allows the State Department to enforce the policy while litigation continues. The case will return to the First Circuit Court of Appeals for consideration.
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth—in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment,” the opinion stated.
Though the ruling was left unsigned, liberal Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson dissented, indicating the six right-leaning justices ruled in favor of Trump.
Justice Jackson, who famously could not define what a woman is, authored a dissent.
The Biden administration previously allowed individuals to choose “X” as a gender marker, as Fox News reported.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the decision a victory for “common sense.”
“Once again, the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump administration,” Secretary Rubio wrote on X.
Once again, the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump administration.
A huge win for @POTUS and for common sense!https://t.co/4U9k8JEogG
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) November 6, 2025
“The Supreme Court has affirmed the simple truth that government issued documents should reflect objective reality and not radical ideologies,” Florida Rep. Daniel Webster also wrote on X.
Pro-LGBT groups criticized the ruling.
ACLU attorney Jon Davidson said the decision “is a heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves, and fuel on the fire the Trump administration is stoking against transgender people and their constitutional rights.”
“Forcing transgender people to carry passports that out them against their will increases the risk that they will face harassment and violence and adds to the considerable barriers they already face in securing freedom, safety, and acceptance,” Davidson claimed.
The Trump administration argued “the Constitution does not prohibit the government from defining sex in terms of an individual’s biological classification,” as reported by NBC News.
Opponents of the policy argued otherwise.
“This new policy puts transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people in potential danger whenever they use,” attorneys for the “transgender” plaintiffs argued.
The policy lines up with scientific fact, as biologists have affirmed no one can change their sex.
“Biological sex is real, immutable, and binary,” atheist evolutionary biologist Colin Wright has said, for example.